Police Chief Daniel R. Charette says he is seeking money from the town to go after more than 100 people who have not paid $100 civil fines for possessing small amounts of marijuana.

Chief Charette said he intends to pursue the cases in small claims court, similar to an effort launched in Webster last year.

In November 2008, state voters approved a ballot initiative to decriminalize possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. It is punishable by a civil fine of $100. Violators no longer are reported to the state criminal history board.

Webster began pursuing people who did not pay the fine in small claims court in March.

At the time, Webster Police Chief Timothy J. Bent credited Dudley District Court Magistrate Kenneth F. Candito for the idea to hold the defendants civilly accountable for not paying the fine.

Two of the first 10 Webster offenders paid the fines immediately last year.

Chief Charette said Southbridge Police Lt. Shane D. Woodson and Officer Duane Ledoux, Southbridge’s court officer, met recently with Mr. Candito and other law enforcement officials in the area about the effort.

About three years ago, Chief Charette said, Southbridge transitioned to doing some of its hearings for civil violations in-house, meaning it had hearing officers for non-criminal activities such as curbside trash citations and disorderly conduct.

“We’re rethinking how we’re going to do that now, primarily because of the marijuana ones,” Chief Charette said. “We have more than 100 outstanding marijuana 21D’s (the state statue for non-criminal disposition of the violations upon payment to a city or town within 21 days) that were never paid, going back at least two years.”

The civil process costs approximately $40 per citation.

The chief said he was concerned, now that marijuana laws have drastically changed with a provision for medical marijuana, about whether the courts would take seriously cases involving less than an ounce of marijuana.

Although there are more than 100 tickets, at $40 apiece for small-claims applications, Mr. Candito said, the town wouldn’t likely need all of the more than $4,000 up front because it will be able to collect money from the first set of violators.

“That’s something that was talked about,” Chief Charette said. “I think that was a good idea.”

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